There are millions of cars and trucks on the roads, with millions of vehicles added each year. This results in tens of millions of tires being used and discarded each year. Disposing of these tires has proven problematic. With space in landfills becoming more and more scarce, it is not economical to dispose of automobile tires in landfills. Dumping tires in the ocean has not proven to be ecologically sound as the sea life does not adhere to the tire surfaces and ocean currents can cause the tires to be dispersed. When tires come into contact with natural ecosystems, they harm the ecosystems by physically breaking off coral and covering ocean invertebrates. They also release a steady stream of contaminants into the water which kills surrounding ocean life.
Burning tires also involves huge environmental issues because the burning tires release a huge amount of particulate matter, smoke and unburned hydrocarbons into the air.
Various methods have been devised to deal with used tires, including large machines which break them into small pieces. The presence of steel within the tires makes chipping them into small pieces difficult, and previous attempts to recover oil or energy from the tires has not resulted in a clean and efficient system.
What is needed is a tire processing system which recovers oil and gas from the tires and makes those available as energy sources or as feedstock to other manufacturing processes. A further goal is to reduce the bulk of the tires so that only ash and steel remain from the original tires, with both of these being able to be fed into an industrial process as a feedstock.